Peanuts on the Hogwarts Express
by TheSummerNightingale
Summary: In which a series of mishaps on the Hogwarts Express leads to third-year Lily Evans offering James Potter some of her peanuts. / In which James Potter receives a gift from Lily Evans which he may-or-may-not be allergic to - but he's never been the most sensible when it came to Lily.


**HPFC Random Word Prompt** \- _24\. nuts_

* * *

The train ride from King's Cross to Hogwarts, or vice versa,was always something Lily looked forward to.

She liked trains; she liked the coziness of compartments and plush red seats, the sound of the trolley whisking by and the knowledge that she was _headed_ somewhere. But mostly, she liked the Hogwarts Express because that was when she and Severus were most able to sit comfortably, fold down the blinds to the train corridors, and talk uninhibitedly all the way back home - where they could spend summers in Spinner's End together.

Colored ties off, Muggle clothes on - like how it had been in the days before Hogwarts, before they had to be mindful of the fact that she was a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin. Both of them always denied that the fact had any impact on their relationship, and maybe it did not, on their sides. But Lily always sensed a greater freedom to talk to Severus on the express than at Hogwarts.

But it seemed, that on the ride to Hogwarts at the beginning of their third year, that was to change.

"They want me to sit with them," Severus explained, glancing over his shoulder at a group of Slytherin boys in their year. "I'm not sure if I will, though."

Lily looked at the group too. "I didn't know you hung out with Avery."

"Me neither." At Lily's raised eyebrow, Severus smiled. "But they _asked_ me to sit with them. I guess that means they want to get to know me this year."

"It does sound like that," Lily agreed. She observed the way Severus's eyes lit up, the way his fingers fiddled with his luggage handle, and she knew her best friend far too well to see that he was excited about this prospect. She knew that the other Slytherin boys had never expressed a distinct interest in him before.

She swallowed her disappointment and smiled. "Sit with them."

When Severus looked back at her, opening his mouth to protest, she shushed him and said reassuringly, "Really, Sev. I'll just find Violet or Marlene, or someone. It'll be fun for you, too."

"I don't have to - are you sure?"

"Positive. Now, go." She reached out and pulled him into a quick hug before making her way toward the train. "I'll see you at the school!" she called back, waving.

On the train, it didn't take Lily long to find an empty compartment and get situated. Her disappointment at Severus's absence resurfaced quickly, however, as she was putting her luggage away - she and Severus had a system of hoisting each other's luggage up to the shelves, one that almost always resulted in her toppling down onto the seats and them laughing.

Lily shook her head to herself. She walked to the compartment door and pushed it open, with the intent to search for friends she could pull into the compartment with her.

It was this action of opening the door that she immediately regretted - for passing by directly outside her compartment was none other than James Potter and Sirius Black.

Lily immediately stepped backward and moved to shut the door, but it was too late; her abrupt entrance into the corridor had alerted the latter to her presence. He turned curiously, gasped loudly, and proclaimed,

" _Evans_! What a delight it is to see you in such _fine_ health." Sirius pushed aside his dark hair, which seemed to have grown even longer in the summer, and grinned widely at her.

"Hello, Black," she said but the words had barely come out of her mouth before he was pushed aside by James Potter.

"Evans!" James greeted, hazel eyes sparkling. "What a _delight_ it is to see you in such fine health!"

"Really smooth, mate," Sirius said, shoving his friend back.

"Hello, Potter. I hope both of you had good summers. Now, if you'll excuse me -"

Lily began to retreat into her compartment again, but James's face suddenly lit up.

"Where's Snivellus - I mean, _Severus_ \- Snape? Is it possible that he's not coming to school this year, or ever?"

"What?" Lily barked.

Potter extended a hand past her shoulder and pointed. "Your compartment's empty. Usually you sit with the scrawny git."

"But it'd actually be a shame if he weren't here, don't you think, James?" Sirius leaned against her compartment window. "Who else is pathetic enough that we could have fun teasing all year again?"

Lily looked at the pair in disgust. "Clearly, the summer hasn't improved on either of you at all," she said, dropping her attempt at niceties. "Have a nice ride."

She should have known they wouldn't acquiesce and leave, but she could only glare at them as they followed her into the compartment, pulling in their luggage and talking casually with each other. As they began to lift their luggage into the storage slots, she began to say hotly, "I am _not_ spending the whole ride to Hogwarts with you -"

"Lily?"

She turned, and was met with the sight of Remus Lupin's bright smile, as he peeked into the compartment.

"Hi, Remus," she said. Her indignation temporarily deflated with her genuine affection for the brown-haired, kind Gryffindor, and she sat down.

"Are we sitting with you this ride? Lovely." Remus yanked his luggage into the compartment. Lily opened her mouth to say that she really didn't think that was a good idea, when he smiled so warmly at her that her mouth clamped shut of its own accord.

"Where's Peter?" Sirius asked. He was already lounging across the seats, effectively taking up enough space for two people.

"Haven't seen him," replied Remus as James shrugged and made a beeline for the empty seat next to Lily.

Lily watched him like a very displeased hawk, taking in this unfortunate situation. She very desperately wished that she had tried to convince Sev to stay with her now - if that meant not having to spend the next 8 hours sitting next to _Potter_.

"How was your summer, Evans?" James sat down beside her. He leaned over to open up the compartment window.

Lily leapt up and made a show of rummaging through her suitcase. The noise from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters wafted through the now-open window, reminding her that Severus was somewhere out there. "Fine, thanks. How was your summer, Remus?"

"Eventful. My dad wanted to travel around and visit our relatives throughout the United Kingdom."

"Oooh, that sounds wonderful!"

"You need help with your stuff, Evans?" Sirius asked. There was an amused sort of tone in his voice.

"Not at all." Lily abruptly stopped fidgeting with the zippers and actually peered into her luggage. She pulled out a book from the school list and a pack of peanuts her mum had slipped in, and steeled herself as she turned back to the compartment. The three boys were staring expectantly at her.

She held up her book. "I think I'm going to spend the ride reading this."

"Aw, don't be like that." Sirius sat up straight. "Have some fun with us, Evans. We were going to play some Exploding Snap, once Peter comes -"

"Oh, that's right. Don't you think we should go find him?"

At this, Potter perked up and exclaimed, "Excellent idea, Remus! I nominate you and Sirius to go search for him."

The other three in the compartment turned to him, with varying degrees of exasperation or amusement on their faces. Lily swiveled toward Remus with pleading eyes and shook her head slightly, begging him silently -

"Great idea, James!" Sirius bounced up to his feet. With one hand, he grabbed Remus's shoulder and started pulling him toward the door. The other hand, to Lily's annoyance, landed atop her head and patted it.

James audibly sucked in a breath and said, "Alright, alright, go bring Peter to us, fellow Marauders. Off you go now! Shoo!"

"Oh, please don't," Lily directed at Remus - but Sirius was already chortling and leaving the compartment, and Remus gave her a half-apologetic smile though the crinkles at his eyes told her that he was as amused as Sirius obviously was, the traitor -

Twenty seconds later, the compartment door had shut, muffling Sirius's receding calls for "Peter the Petty Who Grew." Lily then found herself alone with James Potter lounging on the seat beside her.

She decided the only course of action she could take was to read. As highly as she doubted that Potter would allow her to immerse herself into the book for more than thirty seconds of peace, maybe if she persisted in reading, he would get bored of lazily sitting around here with a mute partner.

So she cracked open her brand new book - _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ , by Quentin Trimble - to the very first page. She began to read, but had only got past the words _Greetings, wizard. This book is an introductory to your fourth year of magical education_ when the estimated thirty seconds of peace showed itself to be in reality no more than five.

"What are you reading, Lily?"

She determinedly chose not to answer. Gripping her bag of peanuts tightly, she fiddled sharply with the top of the packet - and in her annoyance, accidently tore it open a little.

But Potter, being _Potter_ , was relentless as ever. Instead of taking her silence for what it was - a rebuke to his presence and his words - he sidled even closer to her so that if she leaned two inches to the right, her arm would touch his. "Ah! The D.A.D.A. book this year. Getting ahead already, eh?"

Lily scooted to her left. "Yes. Trying to."

The emphasis she put on "trying" didn't seem to register with James; on the contrary, the boy sat upright and seemed invigorated by the fact she had responded at all.

"I haven't read this one yet - but I've looked over _The Standard Book of Spells_ ," he said proudly.

Lily almost snorted. The image of Potter spending any of his free time poring over a book he didn't have to read yet was as comical as it was unfounded. James continued,

"See Evans, this is why you shouldn't spend train rides with Snivellus. I bet with him, you can't focus on the account that he -"

"Potter!"

Lily turned to him, annoyed. "What did Severus ever do to you to provoke these childish jabs at him?" She stood abruptly.

"Because he's a slimy Slytherin bastard." At the furious expression on her face, James amended quickly, "But alright, alright, I won't mention the git again. Sit down, Evans."

He reached out and actually tugged on her bag of peanuts, which she held between two fingers and the back cover of her book.

"Aw, come on," he said when she only glared at him, affronted. He pulled harder.

There was a small ripping noise. Before either Lily or James could do anything, the peanuts went spilling from the plastic bag to the carpet of the compartment. They bounced and rolled in all different directions as Lily stared, surprised, at them and James looked rather shocked, holding a bit of the plastic he had torn off.

"Sorry, Evans, I didn't mean to do that," he said, scrambling up. A crunch below his feet indicated that in the process, he had stepped on some of her peanuts. He looked at her sheepishly.

Lily watched a peanut roll all the way to the compartment door, and then stop just short of the glass pane. Rather than anger, she felt irritation and plain tiredness. Shutting her book and placing it on the seat, she freed her hands so she could kneel to the floor and start picking up the peanuts closest to her.

"Wait, Evans!" Potter leapt down next to her and snatched the plastic wrapper from her hand.

"Give it back, Potter," she said impatiently, making to take it back.

But he held it out of her reach, as if they were playing a game. Yet was not amusement or joking that was on his face - there was something about the furrow between his eyebrows that made his gaze seem genuinely apologetic. She didn't feel inclined to honor it though, and reached for the packet again, but James suddenly stood and dug in his Muggle trousers pocket.

"You don't have to pick those up by hand," he said as he pulled out his wand. "I'll do that for you."

Lily looked at him, fully annoyed now. "What are you _doing_ , Potter?"

In response, he lifted his wand and said, " _Accio_!" To her astonishment, the peanuts she was cupping in her hand flew up and slid neatly back into their packet. " _Accio_!" James repeated, and Lily's incredulous stare moved upward to see that his eyebrows were scrunched up in concentration. Was he…? Yes, he definitely was. Potter was using a Summoning Charm… but she'd looked through _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4_ just yesterday and seen they weren't supposed to learn that spell until second semester this year. How had James learned it - and so well, too?

She watched in half-disbelief, half-amazement as the rest of the peanuts were summoned neatly by James and packed into the plastic bag. James smiled triumphantly, brandished the plastic corner he had torn off, and did one last spell (" _Reparo_!").

He held out the newly sealed packet to Lily, who was still on the ground staring at him.

"Here you go. Can't really do anything 'bout the fact they were on the ground, but -"

He pushed it toward her and Lily stood, grabbing the packet. "How'd you learn to do that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Do what?" The smirk that surfaced on James's face made her suspect he knew exactly what she was referring to.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she ground out obligingly, " _Accio_."

"Oh, that little Summoning Charm? I told you, I read up on that book when I got it from Diagon Alley." James fell back onto his compartment seat with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, Evans, it's not too bad to learn. You're so good at Charms, you'd learn it in a cinch. In fact," he said, eyes lighting up, "you're so good at Charms, one might call you… absolutely _charming_."

James chortled at his own joke while Lily stared at him, slightly disbelieving. She was not sure how someone who had self-taught and just easily performed a charm half a year above his level could be so… daft at the same time?

But to her surprise, her response was finally to snort a little in bemusement. She sat on the seat (although purposely spacing some distance between them) and pulled her book to her lap again.

She opened the book, and tore open her packet of peanuts. As she read, she poured out a couple of nuts into her palm, held her hand out to the side, and said,

"Have a peanut, Potter."

She kept her hand out, but after a few seconds of non-action, looked at James.

He was staring so intently at her, with such a strange, _warming_ expression on his face, that she almost turned away again in the sudden tingles that ran up her back. But the feeling disappeared as quickly as it had come upon her, when James waggled his eyebrows and said almost coquettishly, "Is this your way of thanking me? Giving me peanuts which have touched the floor?"

Lily let out a wry laugh. "Yes. I'm _thanking_ you for spilling my food all over the floor. And then I'm thanking you for picking them all up. Take one, Potter, or don't."

James lunged before she could move her hand away, and picked up a peanut from the pile. "A gift from the elusive Lily Evans. This is one of a kind, you know."

Lily smiled before she could stop herself. It faltered on her face, though, when she saw how James's eyes latched onto her curved lips with a distinctly victorious sort of gleam. "Yes, well, eat it before I take it back."

A corner of James's mouth tugged upward, and he smiled a little at the peanut before putting it into his mouth.

The compartment door slid open.

"We're baaaaack!"

Sirius hurtled into the compartment, followed a few paces behind by Peter, heaving his luggage behind him, and Remus, who was helping Peter carry a small rucksack.

"Hello, Peter," Lily said kindly to the mousy-haired boy.

Peter smiled at her, but it looked like he was forcing it in lieu of the effort it took to carry his suitcase. Lily got up to help him hoist the luggage onto the shelf. "Hi, Lily. Hi, James. What are you eating?"

"Peanuts," Lily replied.

Her back was to the boys, so it wasn't until Remus, in a slightly alarmed voice, asked, "Is _that_ what's in your mouth, James?"

Lily turned around to see expressions of horror on Remus's, Sirius's, and Peter's faces.

James, on the other hand, looked perfectly calm as he munched and swallowed. "It was just one," he said innocently - and that's when he began to cough violently.

"Mate, you're severely bloody _allergic_ to nuts!"

Lily gaped and, forgetting she was helping Peter with his luggage, promptly dropped her arms (Peter, who had been distracted as well, suddenly found he could not support his bags anymore and they landed on the ground and his feet with a resounding crash) and pointed at James. "He's _what_?!"

Remus was already rummaging through James's suitcase, while Sirius pulled out his wand and began to tap it on James's throat. Lily watched in panic as James doubled over and wheezed out, "It's - fine - I'm totally - fine!" Her mind raced to remember the different spells for fighting against allergens and allergic reactions, but she'd actually never researched that in depth before - oooh, she had to remember to ask Madam Pomfrey when they got to Hogwarts, but for now, Lily had no way of helping.

She considered running outside and trying to catch her parents and Petunia to borrow her sister's EpiPen - but the good thing was that Sirius and Remus seemed to know exactly what to do already. Remus had dug out a little flask of dark orange-ish liquid from James's bag, which he put in a dropper and squeezed into James's mouth while Sirius tried to hold him still. Whatever the liquid was, it seemed to have an immediate effect - one second, James was coughing so hard Lily feared he would vomit or hyperventilate, and the next, he was sitting up straight with a lopsided grin on his face.

"See? Nothing to it," he said, as if his best friends and Lily weren't staring at him, shocked and hearts still pounding in adrenaline. His voice sounded completely normal. "Thanks, mates." He clapped Sirius and Remus on the backs, then lifted a hand. "Hey, Pete. How was summer?"

Peter's mouth opened and closed like a fish. "G-great, James. Merlin, I've never seen that happen before -"

Sirius, who was breathing heavily, whacked James on the shoulder before slumping on the seat. "That's because this is the most _dimwitted_ thing he's done since we've all met. And that's saying something."

James spotted Lily looking at him. "Worried for a moment there, Evans? I'm honored." He winked.

Lily suddenly realized that her hands were clamped around her mouth, and she removed them. "Potter -" She shook her head, aghast. "Why would you eat that in the first place if you're so allergic? Did you _forget_ that you're deathly allergic to nuts? How does one even forget something like that?"

Remus had sunken down onto the compartment floor, screwing the cap back on the flask. "Well, if _you_ were the one who offered it to him, I doubt he forgot." He threw James an exasperated look.

"What?"

James bounded to his feet and grinned. Picking up Peter's luggage and easily hoisting it up, he said mildly, "Well, naturally, I remember everything. But how could I refuse something from you, Lily?"

Lily stared, gobsmacked. "I can't believe this." He was so _calm_. Nothing about James Potter was making sense to her right now. "What would you have done if Black and Remus hadn't come? What if I'd been in here and couldn't do anything? Don't you _think_ things through, Potter?!" She huffed at him, unsure why she was still breathing so heavily.

She dodged around him to snatch up the rest of her peanuts. "I need to find Marlene," she declared to the Marauders, before stomping out of the compartment, muttering under her breath about how maybe he should have finished off the bag if he was going to eat one anyway.

* * *

After the compartment door slammed, James Potter's smile only increased. He sprawled himself on the seats across from Sirius and Remus. "Did you see how worked up she was because of me?"

"To be brutally honest, mate," said Sirius from where he had curled up, "I think she was worked up over your lack of any common sense."

"It was worth it, though," said James, quite unfocused. The ceiling of the compartment blurred in his gaze as he thought of Lily's face as he held out the pack of peanuts to her - the slight bewilderment but grudging awe in her pretty green eyes at his magic. He hadn't known those two days of looking over his books, for lack of much else to do, would bring him _such_ good luck.

In the background, Peter whispered to Remus and Sirius, "Eating something dangerous just because she gave it to him - he's got it bad, doesn't he?"

The response came from all three of the remaining Marauders, two exasperated, one dreamily. "Really bad."

* * *

 **First story I'm posting in absolutely AGES, and nothing like humor, fluff, and a pinch of Jily to start it off. Hopefully you enjoyed it! I'm currently looking to get back in the groove of fanfiction writing, so I'd love any suggestions on how to do so - and definitely critiques/suggestions on my writing itself!**


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